Hey friends!

          I hope you have had as fantastic and amazing a summer as I have! Sorry this update has been so long in coming. Since returning to the States I’ve moved, started a new job and been involved in two weddings. That’s not a very good excuse, but life happens. I would like to thank you again for your financial and prayerful support of my mission trip to Australia in June. I would also like to share with you some of my experiences from the trip as well as how the Lord has moved in my heart as a result of the trip.

           Where to start?...I traveled over the Pacific Ocean with 10 wonderful, beautiful women brought together through SBU; we had been meeting together as a small group since the beginning of this last school year. We stayed at a Youth With A Mission base up in “the hills” just outside Adelaide , South Australia ; we were in beautiful vineyard country where koalas hung out in trees and kangaroos roamed through the grape vines at dusk. We were warmly welcomed by the staff and acclimated easily into their community lifestyle. The staff was eager to receive us and told us again and again how much they enjoyed our presence, the unity that we strive for amongst each other, our willingness to join them in their ministries and the encouragement we were able to bring to them. We were the first college group they’ve had and we’re thrilled that things went so well and the Lord was glorified. It wasn’t all work for us; they took us to a wildlife park where we were able to feed kangaroos and wallabies out of our hands and pet koalas! We also visited a couple of historic beaches (Glenelg and Victor Harbour ) while we were out and about. It was much too cold to swim over there as it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but I enjoyed walking barefoot on the sand and wetting my toes in the Pacific (or Indian, we never could decide which one it was) Ocean!

            We were able to set aside a day each week to serve the YWAM base. We split up into groups of two or three and gave the place a great facelift. Our chores ranged from detailing the cars, cleaning the library and kitchen, painting the veranda, organizing donated clothing and the laundry room, working in the garden and digging something-or-another for George’s (the goat) pin, cleaning out the walk-in fridge and freezer, to compiling their wall of pictures into framed collages. At times when the work was difficult or seemed pointless, we wondered why it had been assigned or what it could possibly help; every time the YWAM staffers were just so excited at all we’d accomplished and just kept repeating how glad they were the work had been done. We praise and thank the Lord that we could serve them in a way that means so much to them. I marvel at how faithful God is to answer our prayers, that we would be a blessing in large and small, tangible and intangible ways.

            We were also able to take part in a few other ministry opportunities with YWAM. Some of the girls (more education/teacher minded than I) were able to spend some time in the schools. One day they were allowed in a secondary school and packed a “Disciple Now” into one school day. They spoke in small groups on relationships which culminated in a discussion on the relationship between God and man. The girls experienced all different levels of discussion and interest in the topics; and also had their eyes opened to how open but not necessarily receptive the culture is to at least hearing what they had to say. A few others had the opportunity to assist primary school art teachers in preparing some projects for the kids.  As a group we visited an aged home one morning and enjoyed conversation, music and tea with the residents. All the women I met were over 90! They had fantastic stories and seemed to genuinely enjoy recounting good times in their life to the younger generation. On another occasion, we were able to assist a pastor new to Mile End Church of Christ in canvassing the surrounding neighborhoods. Pastor Bryan was recently hired as interim pastor and lives a good distance away from the church; he is attempting to get to know the community and their needs and what issues the residents are most concerned about. He is planning to use the information we gathered to develop community outreaches and push the church outside their walls to extend the Love of Christ in ways that the community will be able to understand and receive it. The church provided lunch for us and we enjoyed fellowshipping with Bryan and hearing his heart for ministry; it helped to ease the sting of rejection by those we tried to interview. We got a clear picture of the spiritual climate in the area; most were agreeable and had no problem answering a couple questions about the community and ways in which it could be improved. However, bring up the word church and the majority of people no longer wanted anything to do with us. It was heartbreaking to see the spiritual deadness full on; at the same time it was breathtaking to see the Body of Christ in each other as we encouraged one another throughout the day.

            During our time down under, we even got to spend a couple of days in Sydney . We of course found a way to navigate the train system and downtown Sydney to make a quick visit to the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge . That same night we prayer walked King’s Cross, the red light district of downtown Sydney . We also got to spend a day in Newtown serving lunch at a church. We met several interesting characters that afternoon, and I really enjoyed hearing snippets of their stories and being able to help provide them with a fresh hot meal. It seemed natural to me, but when the attendees found out we were Americans and heading back home the next day they were floored that we would give time to serve them. We pray they would see Christ’s Love displayed through all the servants’ hearts the encounter through that ministry; that God would use these examples to help change lives.

On Tuesday afternoons and Friday nights we went out with Rahab Ministries. Paullette, the director of Rahab split our American group of eleven into four smaller groups of two or three. Each American was paired with an Australian member of the Rahab team; and out we went to visit the brothels. Rahab introduces itself as a support system for the girls/women in the sex industry. Each time Rahab goes out it delivers a business card, a can of coke, a chocolate and a small pampering-type gift (this month it was facial moisturizer). These gifts are a nice icebreaker and keep Rahab in favor among the women. The ministry takes more of a hands-off type of approach as they know that unless the woman has made up her mind and decided she wants out, there is no amount of convincing that can sway her opinion. Our time in the brothels was spent just hanging out and talking to the girls who were working that night, in their break-room. The women were varied in age and walks of life, from first year University students, to married with multiple children, to nurses, to middle-age drug addicts. The brothels were as varied as the girls themselves, some were in downtown Adelaide, some in the suburbs in residential neighborhoods –even in an apartment building with three clothespins on the door denoting how many women were working that day, some were more run-down or an extension of bars, others were completely ritzy and bragged about how they had the best girls and were the classiest. At the brothels we were typically met by a receptionist who would grant or refuse us access. To the receptionists it was all just business; it seemed normal to them that their merchandise is women.

All the women we met were nothing like the picture Hollywood paints. We encountered 3 different types of women, those on the street who were selling themselves to support an addictive habit, those who voluntarily entered the sex industry for materialistic purposes (the pay is good), and those who we were never allowed to meet because they have been trafficked. The majority of our interactions were with those who love the paycheck, many of these women were married and had children; some were nurses or other professionals who enjoy the extra cash by “picking up shifts” on their days off. I met two girls who were 18, one in University the other didn’t know what she wanted to do. They had met through ex-boyfriends and the one had gotten the other a job. They were so casual about it all, we even chatted for a bit about the whole “Twilight” craze and how much they loved the series. These women are deeply entrenched in a world of materialism; they worship their paycheck, not showing or admitting to the damage their lifestyle is reeking on their hearts. For these women we prayed for freedom from the chains of vanity, greed and status.

Every time we went out to the brothels we also went down Hansen Street where women can be found working the streets. This is where we experienced the second type of woman; those addicted who prostitute themselves to support their drug of choice. The encounters we had with these women were much shorter, some of them wanted nothing to do with us, others were under the influence while we visited with them, and most of them were trying to remain available to customers even when with us. Jade told us she wanted to try rehab again, she knew what she was doing was hurting her mother and children but she couldn’t get up in the morning without a hit of heroin. She allowed us to pray for her and accepted the card from Rahab. We pray she does pick up the phone and call Paullette; that the Lord brings healing and breaks the stronghold of addiction in her life and the lives of all the girls we met on the street.

Perhaps the most difficult situation we were faced with on this trip was our education of human trafficking. The third type we attempted to encounter, we never actually met. Some brothels we attempted to visit wouldn't even open the door to us. These are the brothels suspected of trafficking. Unfortunately on this trip we were plunged into the second most profitable industry in the world: the sex trafficking industry. Paullette opened our eyes to the horrors of young girls, women and boys from third world countries. Children to teens are kidnapped, promised high paying jobs in the city, bought from parents (who may or may not know what they are doing to their children) or otherwise coerced from their homes and forced into sexual slavery. Most times the receptionist that turned us away from these brothels spoke in broken English and only through a window near the door, forbidding us to leave gifts. Rahab always tries to leave something, especially the cans of coke with the business card, at these locations. Paullette has a contact inside the police force she gives any and all information she can glean. Rahab continues to visit these brothels in hope that they might be able to minister to the women inside and also so they might be able to assist law enforcement in shutting the places and industries down. We would spend extra time outside these places dedicated to prayer for those trapped inside.

We were able to prayer walk and drive the city. We prayed that the sex industry in every aspect would fail; fail to be profitable, fail to attract customers and workers, fail to operate. We prayed for the clientele; that the Lord would bring conviction heavy on their hearts, that He would bring faithful godly men into their lives to draw them out of their addiction to lust and satisfying their fleshly desires. We prayed for these girls who are enslaved; we prayed for their protection and safety. We prayed that Christ would be their salvation, that He would rescue them swiftly and begin healing their beaten, weary, broken hearts and bodies. We prayed that those responsible for enslaving them would be unable to continue, that they be quickly brought to justice; and although we battled our flesh through it we also asked the Lord to bring His saving Grace to their wounded hardened souls.

As a group of eleven young women we learned heaps about living in unity with one another as the body of Christ. With such heavy subjects and issues to consistently be processing we spent a lot of time meeting together. We learned how to be humble enough to share our hearts as twisted, broken and raw as they were, and to be gracious enough to hear one another’s hearts and continue to accept each other. As a group of all females we struggled to guard our hearts from anger, hatred and bitterness towards men: men who create a demand for the sex industry, who view and use women as only sexual objects, and especially those who operate the sex trafficking trade. We took time to encourage and challenge each other to make a clear distinction between the kind of men we encountered on this trip and the strong godly men we have in our lives. We also pray the Lord turns our heart to these men; they need healing and salvation from Christ as well.

We would also like to extend a challenge to you: our supporters, families and friends back home. I ask you to open your eyes to the sex industry and the seemingly subtle ways it continues to pour into our culture and society. I pray that men would rise up in the Lord out of passivity and reclaim their purity and stand strong in it; that they would hold one another accountable. I pray that we, as women, would strive against our flesh nature to claim authority through ways of manipulation and learn the blessings of a submissive heart; and to join together to serve the broken among us.

Personally, my heart has been very much broken for those who are trafficked. I find myself unable to return home and take no action. Where and how the Lord is leading me in that area I am still unsure. I don’t know what my future looks like, but I do know that Christ is drawing my heart towards ministry for those precious souls who have experienced the horrors of trafficking. Please join me in prayer as I seek what the Lord has for my future. Thank you again for your wonderful loving support. It is truly, deeply appreciated. If you’d like to chat further about my trip, I’m always up for sharing more. Give me a call!

God Bless,

Rachel Wilson